Deron Williams' Days as an NBA Star Are Officially Over

The Brooklyn Nets can stop waiting now.

For three-plus seasons, they have been hoping that Deron Williams could serve as their franchise face and help the organization regain some relevance.

With his 30th birthday behind him, more surgical attention paid to his problematic ankles and his production trapped in a downward spiral, he simply is no longer suited for such a prominent role or capable of carrying that type of responsibility.

There has been too much damage done to even wish for the kind of repair he would need to reclaim his spot among the NBA elites. That ship has sailed, and nothing can bring it back to harbor.

That isn't a criticism; it's an observation.

When is the last time his stat sheet remotely resembled that of a full-fledged superstar? Certainly not last season, when his scoring (14.3) and assists (6.1) dropped to their lowest levels since his rookie year of 2005-06. He topped 18 points and seven assists the season prior, but so did John Wall—a year before his first All-Star ticket was punched.

In 2011-12, Williams averaged 21 points and 8.7 assists, but he shot just 40.7 percent from the field and led the league with four turnovers a night.

The 2010-11 campaign was probably the last time he enjoyed an elite standing (20.1 points and 10.3 assists), although that might have been stripped during his dreadful 12-game showing for the then-New Jersey Nets after a midseason trade (15 points on 34.9 percent shooting).

The fact that his door to All-Star status is closed now isn't surprising. If anything astonishing is happening here, it's that we held that door open for him for this long.

Elsa/Getty Images

Maybe that was our natural reaction since we—as in the basketball world, not Nets fans—had seen greatness from him before.

Williams never passed 2005 draft classmate Chris Paul in the point guard hierarchy, but he came as close as any floor general whose tenure overlapped that of the Los Angeles Clippers' signal-caller. Williams, the third selection, was taken in front of Paul (fourth overall). And through their first five seasons in the league, the pair remained on relatively equal planes.

Player	PTS	FG%	3P%	AST	REB	STL	PER
Deron Williams	17.2	46.3	35.5	9.2	3.2	1.1	19.0
Chris Paul	18.7	47.1	35.9	9.9	4.6	2.4	25.2

Paul had the slight edge, but the gap was slim enough for "Paul or Williams?" debates to blanket the NBA landscape.

Suffice it to say those subjective arguments have been objectively finished for a while.

"He has dropped a long, long way since then, in part because of injuries and in part because ... well, no one is sure," Sporting News' Sean Deveney wrote of Williams. "Conditioning? Coaching? Wear and tear?"

Let's start with Williams' injuries because they are both the easiest way to explain his struggles and the greatest source of optimism for a potential comeback.

Physically, he hasn't been himself for some time. His ankle problems date back to the 2012 Olympics, and they have required numerous cortisone shots and other injections. He missed 18 games last season and came off the bench in six others—the first time since his rookie year he was used in a reserve role.

He underwent surgery on both ankles in May, and, according to Williams, that helped put the issue behind him. Here's what he told Newsday's Roderick Boone:

"

When you can't run, can't jump, it's hard to play basketball, especially in this league. The only thing I wish is I would've got surgery earlier, but what can you do? I'm ready to go now and excited about the season.

"

New Nets coach Lionel Hollins has apparently heard what he needed to hear in order to hand over his offense's keys to Williams.

"He's a point guard. He's our point guard," Hollins told Brian Lewis of the New York Post. " ... He's going to be the primary ball-handler."

Nathaniel S. Butler/Getty Images

Problem solved, right? Well, not exactly.

For one, Williams needs to prove he is healthy over the course of a full 82-game season.

Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry needed two surgeries to put his ankle problems behind him, and Dubs fans still cringe whenever he so much as rolls one of them. The sharpshooter was also only 24 the last time he went under the knife, so Williams' age could complicate his recovery.

Even if he gets back to full strength, he can't morph back into the player he was. That one has been lost to the history books:

Besides, it's not as if all of his struggles can be attributed to his ankle problems. He blamed something else entirely when his shooting percentages dipped far below the realm of respectability in 2012-13.

"I didn't have the talent around me I did there," Williams told reporters in December 2012 while admitting he wasn't the same player he had been with the Utah Jazz. "Their system was a great system for my style of play. I am a system player."

D. Clarke Evans/Getty Images

Will Hollins, Williams' fourth different coach with the Nets, put the point guard back in the system he apparently needs to thrive?

During four full seasons with the Memphis Grizzlies, Hollins' team never finished higher than 13th in offensive efficiency, and the success it did enjoy on that side of the floor started with twin towers Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol.

Let's assume that Williams is both healthy and part of an offense that caters to his strengths. That still wouldn't be enough to automatically launch him into All-Star orbit.

His physical problems, as damaging as they were, never were as threatening as the mental wounds they helped create.

Confidence is such a critical part of this profession, and Williams' might be shot:

Even worse, the Nets' point guard isn't the only one who can see the low reading on his confidence meter, as Sports Illustrated's Chris Ballard explained:

"

Gotham Chopra, the director of 'Kobe Bryant’s Muse', an upcoming documentary on Bryant, told a story about being with Kobe and watching the Nets and the Heat play. Recounts Chopra, "Deron Williams went like 0-for-9. I was like, 'Can you believe Deron Williams went 0-9?' Kobe was like, 'I would go 0-30 before I would go 0-9.  0-9 means you beat yourself, you psyched yourself out of the game, because Deron Williams can get more shots in the game. The only reason is because you've just now lost confidence in yourself.'"

"

There are procedures for addressing Williams' ankle woes, strategies for helping him adapt to another new offensive system.

But no one can help him restore his confidence. That change can come only from within, and none of the other progress made this summer will have any impact without it.

"He has to get back to feeling like he is 'The Man' on the team again," wrote ESPNNewYork.com's Ohm Youngmisuk. "That's going to take time."

And it's not as if 30-year-olds are sitting on an abundance of time in this league.

There are reasons to hope he can clean up his production, but his ceiling stops well short of All-Star recognition. The position has passed him by.

Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press

Six different point guards were selected for the 2014 midseason classic: Paul, Curry, Kyrie Irving, Wall, Tony Parker and Damian Lillard.

Countless others could snag a spot this coming February, including Russell Westbrook, Derrick Rose, Rajon Rondo, Goran Dragic, Mike Conley, Kyle Lowry, Ty Lawson and Jrue Holiday.

Williams won't jump ahead of those players or even clear enough of them to earn All-Star honors for the first time since 2012. He could have some good years in his future still but nothing like the great ones in his past.

This is reality for the Nets.

Exorbitant payroll aside, this is a team that will draw its strength from its numbers, not elite-level talent at the top. Williams will play a pivotal role in their success, but so will Brook Lopez, Joe Johnson, Andrei Kirilenko, Kevin Garnett, Jarrett Jack, Mason Plumlee and the rest of this roster.

For Brooklyn, Williams is one of many pieces needed to make that puzzle fit. As long as he's part of the solution and not the problem, the franchise should take what it can get from its fallen star.

Unless otherwise noted, statistics used courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com and NBA.com.

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